Linda Gates looked up from the sidewalk to the broken windows of her Main Street apartment, where firefighters inside were finishing putting out the fire that destroyed everything she owned.

Gates, 65, has lived in the Main Street apartment above the Pocono Sew & Vac store for six years and is now down to just the clothes on her back, she explained, tears in her eyes.

The fire Saturday morning started while she was away and destroyed two or three apartments out of eight in the building and caused water damage to the Sew & Vac, Stroudsburg Fire Chief John E. Stevens said.

Stevens said the call came in at about 9:30 a.m. and its origin remains under investigation.

The response closed a section of Main Street and he said at about 12:30 p.m. he expected the clean-up would take several more hours. Main Street is now re-opened.

No one was hurt in the fire, Stevens said, and responders brought it under control within about an hour.

The fire blew out some of the glass in the windows, and firefighters smashed others as part of the response, he said.

Earlier in the day, witnesses reported seeing flames shooting out of an upper-floor window. Among the fire companies on the scene were Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Stroud and Pocono Township.

Stevens said Main Street fires are all significant given the potential of them spreading between buildings.

“We were able to contain it to the building,” he said.

But Gates said she was distraught to get the call from a friend that her apartment was on fire.

Her roommate and fiance, who is 72, was out of the apartment doing laundry, she said.

Fortunately, he has more clothing left and an urn holding the ashes of his late wife were saved.

He also had open heart surgery several months ago and the medication is now gone, Gates said.

“I lost everything,” she added.

One of Gates’ friends, Dorothy Clark, stood alongside her on the sidewalk.

She said she is homeless and Gates has helped her many times so she plans to do the same now, outlining ideas of where they would go to get clothes.